1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a medical safety device and more particularly to an apparatus for providing a safety shield against the inadvertent sticking of a syringe needle into the hand of a person in the process of transferring body fluids from a syringe into a test tube.
2. History of the Prior Art
The medical community in recent years has become increasingly aware of, and concerned about, the transmission of infectious disease and viruses in the laboratory, clinic, and hospital environment where patients carrying such a disease, virus or the like are in physical communication with health care personnel. A recently discovered virus, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has a special affinity for helper T cells and macrophages, which are among the immune system's primary weapons against disease. Its clinical manifestations are diseases that were once rare and it is the known cause of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and AIDS-related complex, a less severe form of the condition. The virus can remain hidden in cells for years before it begins to multiply and destroy the immune system. In the U.S. alone there may be up to 2 million carrying the virus with neither sign or symptom of the illness. Since it may be several years before effective antiviral drugs or vaccines can be developed, it is likely that testing individuals for carrying of the virus will be under more and more demand.
With this onslaught of the AIDS virus as a deadly contaminant to be reckoned with in the health care field has come the accompanying problem of safety in handling patients with any such virus or disease. Since AIDS is one of the strong motivating factors leading to the development of this invention, the background and description of this invention is strongly addressed thereto. As mentioned, one of the most pressing factors relating to the control of AIDS, or any disease for that matter, is detection. Since contamination by the virus can be completed by contact of a carrier's body fluids with sensitive portions of another's body, the chances of contracting the virus are particularly high where people are handling the body fluids of carriers. Such is the case for those testing for the virus by taking body fluid samples with a syringe. Part of the typical process of taking samples of blood for example, is to remove the sample into a syringe by way of a needle injected into the patient and then to transfer the blood sample from the syringe into a test tube. This is typically done by inserting the syringe needle (after the sample has been captured in the syringe) into an evacuated test tube. The test tube, which has its interior under a vacuum, has a rubber stopper or the like at its upper end for maintaining the vacuum. The syringe needle is injected through the top of the stopper and into the evacuated space, whereupon the blood sample is drawn by the lower pressure of the vacuum into the test tube.
The syringe needle is then removed from the stoppered end of the test tube and discarded. It is in this process of transferring the blood from the syringe into the test tube that a danger exists for the person performing the transfer to be injected with the virus. If the person making the transfer were to inadvertently miss the stoppered end of the test tube, the syringe needle could easily contact and pierce the skin of the person performing the transfer or another person holding the test tube. This in itself could cause the virus to be transmitted to the hand of that person.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved device for preventing the accidental sticking of a person attempting to transfer a body fluid sample from a syringe to a test receptacle.